1. Technical Field
The embodiments herein generally relate to wireless communications, and, more particularly, to physical layer processing in MediaFLO™ (Forward Link Only) mobile multimedia multicast systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, the wireless industry has seen explosive growth in device capability, especially in relation to mobile devices, such as cell phones, handhelds, gaming consoles, etc. Ever-increasing demand for computing power, memory, and high-end graphic functionalities has accelerated the development of new and exciting wireless services. In the last few years, multiple technologies have been proposed to address delivery of streaming multimedia to mobile devices.
Multimedia communications provide a rich and immediate environment of image, graphics, sound, text and interaction through a range of technologies. An example of multimedia communication is streaming multimedia which is primarily a delivery of continuous synchronized media data. The streaming multimedia is constantly received by, and displayed to an end user while it is being delivered by a provider. Multiple technologies such as Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting—Terrestrial (ISDB-T), Terrestrial-Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (T-DMB), Satellite—Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (S-DMB), Digital Video Broadcasting—Handheld (DVB-H), and FLO (Forward Link Only) are used to address the delivery of streaming multimedia to mobile devices. These technologies have typically leveraged upon either third generation cellular/PCS, or digital terrestrial TV broadcast technologies.
For delivering unprecedented volumes of high-quality, streaming or clipped, audio and video multimedia to wireless subscribers, an air interface has been developed based on FLO technology for MediaFLO™ mobile multimedia multicast system available from Qualcomm, Inc., California, USA. MediaFLO™ or media forward link only is a combination of the media distribution system and the FLO technology. The FLO technology is the ability to deliver a rich variety of content choice to consumers while efficiently utilizing spectrum as well as effectively managing capital and operating expenses for service providers. The details of the MediaFLO™ mobile multimedia multicast system are available in Chari, M. et al., “FLO Physical Layer: An Overview,” IEEE Transactions on Broadcasting, Vol. 53, No. 1, March 2007, the contents of which, in its entirety, is herein incorporated by reference.
FLO technology was designed specifically for the efficient and economical distribution of the same multimedia content to millions of wireless subscribers simultaneously. Also, the FLO technology was designed from the ground up to be a multicasting network, which is overlaid upon a cellular network. It does not need to support any backward compatibility constraints. Thus, both the network infrastructure and the receiver devices are separate from those for the cellular/PCS network. Moreover, as the name suggests, the technology relies on the use of a forward link (network to device) only.
FLO enables reducing the cost of delivering such content and enhancing the user experience, allowing consumers to “surf” channels of content on the same mobile handsets they use for traditional cellular voice and data services.
MediaFLO™ technology can provide robust mobile performance and high capacity without compromising power consumption. The technology also reduces the network cost of delivering multimedia content by dramatically decreasing the number of transmitters needed to be deployed. In addition, MediaFLO™ technology-based multimedia multicasting complements wireless operators' cellular network data and voice services, delivering content to the same cellular handsets used on 3G networks.
The MediaFLO™ wireless system has been designed to broadcast real time audio and video signals, apart from non-real time services to mobile users. The system complements existing networks and radically expands the ability to deliver desired content without impacting the voice and data services. Operators can leverage the MediaFLO™ system to increase average revenue per user (ARPU) and reduce churn by offering enhanced multimedia services. Content providers can take advantage of a new distribution channel to extend their brand to mobile users. Device manufacturers will benefit from increased demand for multimedia-enabled handsets as consumer appetite grows for the rich content provided through MediaFLO™ systems.
The MediaFLO™ service is designed to provide the user with a viewing experience similar to a television viewing experience by providing a familiar type of program-guide user interface. Users can simply select a presentation package, or grouping of programs, just as they would select a channel to subscribe to on television. Once the programs are selected and subscribed to, the user can view the available programming content at any time. In addition to viewing high quality video and audio content and IP data, the user may also have access to related interactive services, including the option to purchase a music album, ring tone, or download of a song featured in a music program. The user can also purchase access to on-demand video programming, above and beyond the content featured on the program guide.
The respective MediaFLO™ system transmission is carried out using tall and high power transmitters to ensure wide coverage in a given geographical area. Further, it is common to deploy 3-4 transmitters in most markets to ensure that the MediaFLO™ system signal reaches a significant portion of the population in a given market. During the acquisition process of a MediaFLO™ system data packet several determinations and computations are made to determine such aspects as frequency offsets for the respective wireless receiver.
Typically, physical layer processing is performed in hardware while other layers in a MediaFLO™ system protocol stack are performed in software on the host processor starting from the MAC Layer. The problem arises when some operations such as Reed-Solomon (RS) decoding, cyclic redundancy check (CRC) checking, defragmentation, and decryption are performed on the host processor. Using software components only to handle protocol stack processing in MediaFLO™ has the following problems. First, operations such as a CRC check, defragmentation, and decryption consume CPU cycles on the host processor. Processing is measured in million instructions per second (MIPS) per Multicast Logical Channel (MLC), which means that the above-mentioned operations typically require between 70 to 90 MIPS/MLC which is a large value that: (a) competes with other applications running on the host processor on the CPU usage (e.g. audio/video codec); (b) introduces extra overhead when data that shall be discarded by the protocol stack (due to errors or certain algorithm constrains) is copied from the application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) receiver memory; and (c) shortens battery life for battery powered devices as processing can be translated to consumed power (approximately 0.04 mW/MIPS). The second problem that arises involves copying data from the ASIC receiver memory to the host processor memory consumes memory space from the memory attached to the host processor as well as burns more power.